Although the game itself takes a good amount of skill to master, Super Mario Bros has a mysterious quality that makes it appealing to even the most inexperienced players. Demon Sword is a ninja action game that plays out at a break-neck speed compared to some of its contemporaries (cough Kung-Fu cough). Alternates between sidescrolling and top-down scrolling. Any discussion of Contra wouldn't be complete without a nod to its iconic 8-bit soundtrack. No longer bound by primitive side-scrolling constraints, the levels of SMB2 can be freely explored, with secret areas, warps and more to discover. Mickey Mousecapade was the first of these, and although it was published by Capcom in the US, it was developed by Hudson and has a different, more primitive feel than the great Disney platformers that succeeded it. And Mega Man 3 took the mantle and ran with it. And so the Battletoads Rash, Pimple, and Zits were born (kids love acne, right?). Its action-platforming style was well-known by Mega Man 3's release, and with the addition of two important new characters, Rush and Protoman, and a new skill, sliding, Mega Man 3 is many fans' favorite in the franchise. I could whip through Super Mario Bros. in 10 minutes without losing a life, but progressing Link toward his final battle was an epic undertaking and one filled with surprises and satisfying rewards throughout. Some people made maps. I doubt anybody would rank the title in their top 10s, but for a 20-plus-year-old action romp, it was as the title suggests pretty rad. And that's saying nothing of its amazing action-platforming gameplay, which was oft-replicated and never exceeded. After a few minutes with Contra's militant anthems you'll want to put your controller down and headbang along. but this Sunsoft sidescroller, which originally was supposed to be a licensed Terminator game, holds up well enough to make this list with absolutely no nostalgia from yours truly. Top 100 NES Games - IGN.com 100 NES Games Start Over Comments 100 Ice Hockey 99 Rush'n Attack 98 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 97 Astyanax 96 Dragon Warrior III 95 Mega Man 4 94 Kickle. I probably played the first level of Section Z more than any other NES game I owned. Seriously, those Turtles love eating pizza. Go back and grab it, either on cartridge or through the Wii's Virtual Console, and experience for yourself the defining console debut for one of the Big N's biggest mascots. Soaring around as Mario in raccoon form simply cannot be beat. However, word of mouth combined with a Nintendo Power promotion that sent copies of the game around the country allowed it to blow up. You'll find a few other games that got thrust into the limelight the same way on this countdown, like VICE: Project Doom. Oddly, I remember the original Mario Bros. as the first game I ever played on a big screen TV. To this day I still vividly remember the cutscenes that showed my sword becoming more powerful. Although, in hindsight, going up against the Tetris juggernaut probably wasn't the best strategy, but still, some lucky NES players found time for both. Gradius' unique power-up system makes for some tough decisions: do you beef up your defenses in order to tough out that inevitable meteor shower? At first, Bionic Commando's emphasis on swinging seems counterintuitive and limiting, but at some point the smooth grappling action just clicks, you find yourself zipping around the stages in a blur of red and green pixels. Back in the day of the NES, the now-common occurrence of franchise flooding was seldom a problem. Alternating both horizontal and vertical scrolling levels with cool 3D-imitating third-person view stages, Contra was designed with short attention spans in mind. Fusing action with platforming, and even some RPG elements, Kid Icarus is one of those key first party NES games that often finds itself ignored. In addition to exceptionally hard feats of platforming, Ninja Gaiden's fast and furious action was made all the more difficult by its vast army of wily enemies. And rely on it they did, making The Legend of Zelda one of the NES' most famous games, part of a franchise that thrives to this day. Enlist a second set of wheels and you'll be nuking twice the whatever-the-hell-you-want-to in no time. Set in an ancient Greece-inspired future (mind blown yet? In a sort of desperate-sounding effort to distinguish itself from other puzzle games that may happen to feature falling colored blocks, Klax's title screen boldly proclaims that "It is the nineties, and there is time for Klax." What stuck out most for me about Double Dragon II was how varied the game was. Confusion aside, the game left players confounded with its intricate, wide-open design. If there was ever a more perfect title for an NES game, we don't know what it was Kid Niki: Radical Ninja got it exactly right. Fast forward another 15 years or so and I spend my nights playing Call of Duty 4 while he frequents games like BlazBlue. From simulated parallax that means multiple backgrounds moving at varying speeds to precise, multi-celled animation, this mech platformer pushes the NES to the very limits of its hardware capabilities. The key to not being obliterated is, of course, power-ups. And believe us, the tanks get larger. Super Mario Bros. was a smash hit, and its American sequel was a completely different type of game. If Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team strikes you as a bit gimmicky, we've got news for you: it is! But the Balloon Adaptor and Wire Adaptor didn't elude me for long, as useless as they were. Fester's Quest also takes its cues from a hodgepodge of genres, which will appeal to many kinds of gamers. While friends moved on to Super NES, I made do with Kirby. nia_prene Posts: 17 Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2021 9:50 pm. Officially titled The Dark Sword of Chaos, the gameplay remained true to the original, with one notable addition: While Ryu always could (and in many cases had to) grapple to walls to get around, Ryu could now scale up and down walls easily. The Double Dragon characters are capable of kicking butt to be sure, but the unique brawling, racing and, yes, spelunking action that Rash, Pimple, and Zits introduced in their first outing is the main attraction in this crossover. As a major Wonder Boy fan, I naturally thought Adventure Island was some kind of rip-off. Some of Ring King's lasting popularity is for reasons a bit more dubious, though, in that it's one of the most laughed-at games on the 8-bit Nintendo because of some unintentionally suggestive visuals. Mega Man's unique approach is what initially made it so interesting to gamers. Created by Sunsoft, which was at the top of its game in the late 1980s with classic release after classic release, Journey to Silius was originally supposed to be a licensed Terminator game. And then there was Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, the follow-up to the smash hit The Legend of Zelda. Excitebike was one of the 18 launch titles for the NES here in America, and distanced itself from the pack by offering truly addictive motocross gameplay. the primary challenge is to obliterate chains of arthropods that creep down from the top of the screen. The entire game fit on an infinitesimally small cartridge sized at 192 kilobits. Honestly, that still amazes me, it was so much better than all of those it was nuts. The ever-flatulent Bub and Bob enter the Cave of Monsters in a blaze of bubble-blowing glory, trapping all manner of beasts in their sticky, spherical emissions. One of the most successful RPGs on the NES, the first Final Fantasy improves on many aspects of Dragon Warrior, a game it very clearly attempts emulate. You take direct control of the samurai's giant head in a sort of side-scrolling shooter that's too deliberately loony not to check out. River City offered a city to explore filled with rival gangs more than happy to smash things over your head if you happen into their territory. Opening up the initial level of Robot Masters from six, as seen in the first game, to eight as seen in each subsequent Classic Series title, Mega Man 2 was also the only Classic Mega Man game to have a difficulty setting. The ability to choose your own path had my permanent attention. You know that random guy named Captain Commando in the Marvel vs. Capcom fighting games? Oh Little Samson, we hardly knew ye! Find Shooter game assets tagged Top-Down like Patreon's Top Down Collection, The Ultimate Weapons Pack, TDS Pixel Art 2D Kit, Animated top down character base template, Zombie Apocalypse Tileset on itch.io, the indie game hosting marketplace . You sped through a scrolling track, weaving up and down into and out of four parallel lanes filled with obstacles, traps and humongous hills. But for the most part, early Zelda gamers had nothing but their own ingenuity to rely on. In it, there's a Qix-inspired mini-game, and in that instant, I remembered how much fun I had with the NES port during my childhood. I was so bored with Tetris. After releasing several games for the Atari 2600 and other computer-based consoles, famed Pitfall! Mario receives some amazing gear in his third game, including the Raccoon Suit that allows him to soar high above the game's carefully crafted levels. Cue Fester's Quest, a 1989 offering from Sunsoft that put gamers in the role of Uncle Fester, a character from the 1960s sitcom The Addams Family. Finally, you can also blast through Life Force with a buddy just don't expect the game's strained, overworked engine to keep up! Although it is fun to pummel some of Double Dragon's most notorious thugs, Battletoads fan will probably be the most satisfied with this cartoonish, goofy beat 'em up. Game developer Compile Game publisher Brderbund Software, Inc. Game published 1988 Game perspective Top-down Game theme Sci-Fi / Futuristic 5 votes Share on Facebook Throughout the game's island world, which include tropical jungles, tepid swamps and cool caverns, our man Higgins happens upon various implements of stone-age destruction, like axes and, uh skateboards. Top. In the original Dragon Warrior, the hero was on his own. Although it's actually the second entry in the predominately Japanese TwinBee series, the re-branded Stinger was the only entry that saw release on the North American NES. Don't let the title or the source material fool you this game will grab you right from the start and won't let go (just like it did me more than 20 years ago). We would have like to see more from our little balloon-riding friend. Over a decade before the name Tony Hawk first began to become synonymous with skateboarding videogames, Electronic Arts was innovating on the NES with the impressively diverse Skate or Die. In an era of 8-bit graphics and MIDI music, Konami crafted a game that immersed you in the horror of Dracula's castle, while all you were looking at and hearing was an artful combination of the typical sights and sounds of the day. And since everybody seems to be teaming up, you may as well take on the combined forces of the Dark Queen and Shadow Warriors with a pal the game's difficulty seems to indicate that it's built for two. Then, Skate or Die 2 came along and trumped its predecessor in many ways, offering a full storyline adventure in addition to the standalone skating events as well as adding in the "Double Trouble" half pipe, a massive structure that spanned two full game screens and let you pull off highly stylish (for the time) vert skating tricks. While two Lolo games preceded the 1991 release of the series' third iteration in the States, the game known by fans as Lolo 3 is most fans' favorite. Dracula is the bad guy? 2. Watching my neighbors play the series endlessly as a child, my first independent go-around with Dragon Warrior was when I was in the 8th grade in 1997. Friggin' troll, I've got only a copper coin! put you in the rookie shoes of underweight title contender Little Mac and challenged you to duck, dodge, jab, hook and uppercut your way to success against one of the greatest rogues' galleries of ridiculous opponents ever assembled for any videogame, ever. Getting him to grow a body was the goal of each stage, and that was accomplished by consuming the dot/pellet/balls of semi-sentient foodstuff known as Nibbley Pibbleys. Its fast-paced 2D action style made it a game preferred by those with quick reflexes, and its arsenal of weaponry, which can be chosen from a Mega Man-like menu, gave the gameplay variety, with certain weapons working best against certain enemies and bosses. Main character Ryu Hayabusa wielded a katana with deadly precision, and he had a grouping of special weapons to use as well. On horseback, must prevent 3 bandits from boarding the train. Whatever!). A small contingent of NES gamers actually prefer Klax to its main competitors the simple, but accessible, Dr. Mario and even to the great Tetris, which does seem a little stuffy when stacked against the Day-Glo extravaganza that is Klax. And it's the insanely crisp gameplay. The NES had its fair share of unique puzzle games, and Adventures of Lolo 3 might take the cake as the genre's quintessential title on the console. I felt such a sense of relief every time I returned to the vehicle from an on-foot segment, like running indoors to escape the Boogeyman in the woods. Sound easy? And as I recall, Ninja Gaiden II taught me to slide button presses for instant jump slashes, a skill that helped when I graduated to fighting games. As a bonus, your stunned partner can double as a bludgeoning tool. All of the terrain was interconnected into one big map, an idea later expanded upon and matured by the SNES's Super Metroid. Simple, straightforward side-scrolling action, lots of baddies to send flying off the screen with a quick swipe of your blade, and stylish graphics for its time. Metal Storm's awesome tech inspired me to seek out games with superior graphics, ultimately leading me to the used game store to trade in my NES and all my games, including Metal Storm, for a Genesis. Doesn't quite fit the "spacesuit" description however. And did we mention your car can transform into a boat? The versus play is simple and even repetitive, but it holds up today. More importantly, this clever title takes platforming's greatest crutch gravity and turns it on its head. What an unsung classic this, and the Game Boy version, is. Mega Man is one of the few franchises on the NES that made it to four games. That was the cryptic fantasy tagline offered up on the box of Faxanadu, one of the best and least-known Nintendo-published adventures to hit the NES throughout the 8-bit systems lifespan. - Levi Buchanan, IGN Wireless & Retro Editor. But even if we never see it again, it's earned its spot on this countdown. Happily, this fine action platformer broke with the stereotypical dungeon crawlers, allowing you to hop around, bashing enemies with your Wand of Whatever without a single roll of multisided dice, virtual or otherwise. - Jeremy Dunham, IGN Games Editorial Manager. Unlike the Adventures of Lolo series, which was unforgiving in its difficulty, Kickle Cubicle's difficulty spikes were much more reasonable. We politely declined and purchased it later, but Showtime Video must have made a good $100 off of us on that one cartridge in the meantime. Toad, the Princess, and Luigi all offer unique qualities that make them viable protagonists. And while all Robot Masters since Mega Man 2 have been designed by the Japanese, Mega Man 6 totes a few created by North Americans. Not content to just slash his foes to death, Niki had to slice and dice them with a whirlwind blade just to be that much more radical. It's no Blades of Steel (hell EA's NHL09 isn't Blades of Steel), but growing up in Minnesota and playing on a hockey team ensured that this one was in the NES as much as Super Mario 3. Just be careful writing down those passwords! arcade nes original game science fiction shoot em up space top-down v-scrolling shoot-em up . However, Mario Bros. was eclipsed by Super Mario Bros. almost immediately upon release in the United States. It has been called a combination of Zelda and 1942. Wow 15+ years later and I can still find fun in this game? Get the Best NES Shmups Here These are by far the best NES shmups for any retro gamer to try. After all, it is 2009, and there's been a lot of time for Tetris and Dr. Mario. This game is infinitely more inventive than that. This game allowed two players to face off against one another in the squared circle, move freely around the ring, throw a variety of punches and even get into grapples, all things you wouldn't find in Little Mac's game. The North American sequel to everyone's favorite game does not disappoint. I bought my own cart off of eBay and experienced the wonders of this influential grinding J-RPG without the help of my peers. Even though Dragon Warrior IV approached the act of storytelling in a unique way, most of Dragon Warrior's gameplay conventions remained unchanged. Bubble Bobble actually encourages you to bring a friend along on your journey only with the cooperation of two talented players can you access the game's extra stages and alternate ending. I might just pretend I have the rights. Despite their popularity, cooperative games were rarity on the NES and hey, when was the last time you got to spend some quality time with your little sister? Constantly being outsmarted by the likes of The Adventures of Lolo, Kickle Cubicle proved to be an entertaining, action-packed alternative that was a little friendlier to all of us puzzle-stupid gamers. Viewing it from afar, I was disappointed, thinking she bought Track and Field. We encourage you to read our updated PRIVACY POLICY and COOKIE POLICY. Brazenly over-the-top, Zombie Nation is one of the few NES titles that doesn't take itself seriously. Pro-Am without it, racing games might have just been all about steering and accelerating. It's bright, colorful aesthetic, awesome enemy designs, amazing music and incredible replay value are all storied parts of the game's history. The NES had a handful of memorable wrestling sims, including Nintendo's own Pro Wrestling and WWF WrestleMania, the first wrestling game to ever license the use of real world performers, but from a gameplay standpoint, none of them ever trumped Tecmo World Wrestling. And you had side-scrolling stages, the core of the game, in which your character ran, jumped and attacked the invading alien hordes with a laser-whip. The place was red and full of aliens to shoot or avoid It's a weird gory little body horror shooter, you're working your way through a giant planet-sized being trying to rescue a princess who's the last surviving member of her race. - Craig Harris, IGN Nintendo Executive Editor. And Christmas of 1990 was when I finally got my hands on the game I would be obsessed with until this day. The hero, Mike Jones, is just an average kid from Seattle who's looking for a lost archaeologist in the tropical archipelago of Caribbean-esque islands. Doctor Hauzer. A puzzler in the same style as HAL Laboratory's famous Adventures of Lolo series, Kickle Cubicle put players in the role of a character aptly named Kickle, who is on a quest to liberate his kingdom from the grasp of an icy evil. This original and its sequel, Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II, are still fondly remembered by faithful Nintendo fans to this day for their unique and light-hearted twist on genre conventions. The arcade version hooked me first, but the NES edition kept my addiction going. That's a shame, because its blend of three different types of gameplay set it apart from the crowd and made it a classic. And my older brothers, both casual players, could never get past the first stage. If you have to play one Mega Man game to familiarize yourself with the series, make it Mega Man 2. Kickle Cubicle's appeal seemed to be centered in its balanced approach. The only game that ended up rivaling this excellent design was Konami's Blades of Steel, but the two were different enough to own and enjoy both (which is why you'll find Blades on this countdown). Metroid proved to be one of the biggest and most daunting games early in the NES' lifecycle. The Ice Climbers, as the two starring characters are popularly known, are relentless lovers of the alpine trek, and they'll stop at nothing to climb mountain after mountain just to reach its apex, where untold valuable items can be found. And, like DuckTales, this led to a high quality NES platformer from Capcom. Ignoring Nintendo's claim to the Tetris name in the US a year later, Tengen released its own version of the world's most famous puzzle game on an unlocked, unofficial cartridge. to aid him in reaching new areas. Super C, the somewhat unfortunately-titled sequel to Contra, features the same co-op shooter action of the first without toying with the formula too much. Do you need anything else? The original Mega Man is perhaps best-known, however, for its staggering difficulty level. But rest assured that like the original, Ninja Gaiden II's difficulty level is nothing to scoff at. It is possibly the most awesome car ever made aside from the "Metal Attacker" in Blaster Master. Smash T.V. Gamers could then figure out which boss was weak to that weapon and attempt to use it against him. And here's the kicker the pit stop comes to you! For me, just making it to level 2 was a major accomplishment that I reveled in let alone, the brutality that I had to overcome in future levels (especially that darned Ice Cavern). The new Rush Adaptors combined Mega Man with his robotic dog into one unit for the first time, and yes, Dr. Wily is again behind the robotic destruction coursing through the game, this time masquerading as the ill-disguised Mr. X. . But back on the NES, there was no besting LucasArts' Maniac Mansion for deep, involved and genuinely funny pointing and clicking action. Well it wasn't. Rush 'n Attack is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up/shooter that didn't reward new players for attempting its titular strategy. The grappling animation between the two fighters makes it look like they're just hugging each other, and the boxers' interaction with their cornermen between rounds is even more, well, provocative. For all of these reasons and more, NES was recently named the best console of all time. Their next door neighbors' kids ended up being me and my siblings' friends as time passed, and they had a basement dedicated to NES gaming. Another home port that differs from the arcade, this one has a cheat code that makes Astyanax invincible (except from pits). Death Rally is a top-down combat racing game developed by Remedy, published by Apogee, and distributed by GT Interactive Software. Each blade offered a different ability, like the Sword of Wind that shot small tornadoes and the Sword of Water that could create bridges of ice. Eventually, you must learn to apply your gravity-defying skills to puzzles, while at the very same time applying your blasters to the faces of many, many enemy robots. Astyanax is armed with a massive golden axe which has a unique mechanic attached to it it's linked to a power meter at the bottom of the screen which depletes and refills after every attack. When Tengen released its first unofficial games using its new technology, Nintendo quickly sued. Because I was the kind of nerd that kept track of developer names, when I saw that the creator of Pitfall was behind Boy and His Blob, I was sold. Punch-Out!! There are over a hundred single-screen levels to conquer in Bubble Bobble, clear all the enemies before you timer is up and you are safe to move on. A complete reworking of an inferior arcade brawler of the same name, Rygar for the NES tells the heroic story of a man and his deadly yo-yo shield. Yes, Super Mario Bros. 2 is a repurposing of a non-Mario Japanese Famicom game called Yume Kj: Doki Doki Panic, but why hold that against it? Using your own bubbles to bounce your way up to out of reach platforms takes some serious platforming skills. Platform(s): NES Genre: Top Down Alien Shooter Game Estimated year of release: Probably before 1990 as I'm pretty sure my dad stopped buying games not long after I was born Graphics/art style: I recall it was top down, a shooter, pretty sure the backdrop is Mars but maybe it was just another alien planet. Get ready to relive the days when shooting down enemy forces and dodging oncoming fire while sipping a can of Surge was all we needed for a quick adrenaline rush. Sure, Duck Hunt's gameplay was as simple as pointing-and-shooting, and one could easily cheat by standing an inch from the television. Buy Buy Buy. Adventure Island II took the original Adventure Island's somewhat tedious straightforward platforming and fleshed it out, becoming the foundation for a solid series. As far as legacy, we never would have had games like Symphony of the Night if the trail wasn't blazed back on 8-bit with Simon's Quest. My greatest memory of this game is trying to convince a dozen IGN editors why this game was so awesome nearly 20 years ago. Snake parachuted into the jungle fortress of Outer Heaven with nothing but his courage and a pack of smokes, and skillfully avoided detection while sneaking through the enemy encampment to find and destroy the titular weapon of mass destruction or, if sneaking didn't work, he beat the snot out of the soldiers in his way. Out of all of the games on the list, Journey to Silius might have one of the most interesting histories. I bet 75-percent of them stop whining about regenerative health after getting their arrows taken away by an Eggplant Wizard for the eightieth time. (which also just so happens to be placed at the bottom of that hole in his yard). What makes the game so special, then? Having Punch-out at home sealed the deal on selling me on an NES, since I loved the arcade game. Navigate up the ramp of a moving semi and you'll instantly up your arsenal. I was totally paranoid that I'd come back from school (or day care or whatever) and the game would be turned off. Every Ice Hockey player discovered their own perfect combination of men, and then it was on to the ice. Perhaps. He then leaps down a nearby hole in the ground and disappears into a vast subterranean labyrinth without a trace. ), Legendary Wings features standard shoot things/power up/shoot more things gameplay but it's the oddball setting that truly sets it apart from vertical space shooters. 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